Stolley’s Hogg Alley

Third time’s a charm.
After trying to experience the fish fry two other times, (only to walk away because the wait was over an hour) some friends and I decided to endure the cramped little bar and grill to see if the stellar reviews were justified.
Who would wait this long for bad food, right?
Like any home grown Wisconsinite, me and fish fry’s have a storied history… some great, some not so much and the majority in between.
Hogg Alley leaps over the great category and into the epic region. I had the fried perch and it was special! Perfectly fried, moist and tender fish, just the right amount of batter, and most importantly, the batter seasoning. Any place can just slop some tasteless batter on fish and serve it to the masses, but the great ones have a mystical seasoning that puts their fish over the top. Stolley’s has that and more!
I also had a taste of the baked cod and that rivals the perch. Can baked really rival fried? This IS Wisconsin? It can at Stolley’s.
Here’s where things get serious. Potato pancakes. I have searched this planet for the perfect potato pancake, only to be denied countless times. The search is over. These are the best homemade potato pancakes on earth. Words cannot describe them, just go and experience them and be astonished.
Why not 5 stars? If I could give it 4 ¾ stars I would. Food was great, the service was awesome, but the acoustics were not good… just too noisy. You really had to shout to have a conversation and even then I would just nod and smile… but that won’t stop me from getting an awesome fish fry and the best potato pancakes on earth.
Definitely worth the wait.

Friday Fish Fry = Fannnntabulous!
Prepare to wait… and the waiting list is long… but then the wait is over!
Perch is buttery g-​o-​o-​d! Breading is light so as to not take away from the inherent deliciousness of the fish… yet with just enough spice to enhance the flavor.
Tarter sauce had good amount of mayo smoothness, tangyness and was «just» goldilocks «right». However, as great as it is… I found myself leaning toward just needing only lemon as I just adored the perch so much!
I Love loVe LovE fries with just about everything on this blue world of ours… but shhhh… Listen close… SKIP the FRIES… Potato Pancakes or bust!!! Best herb-​a-​butter-​riffic hashbrown-​y Croquettish yummies. Ever.
It wasnt till we left that we noticed the potato salad never made it to our table… but no matter we were properly full and satisfied by the Yummy cole slaw served in advance to boot.
One disclaimer… the restaurant is small… it’s a good old bar… so it can get loud… very loud… so conversations can be tough…
Still…for the food alone, try this place! …Wait… scratch that.
Do. Or do not. There is no try.
…
Do!

Very good food, friendly service.
Stopped in here to meet up with my dad for dinner since it’s about half-​ish way in between our houses and I was actually pretty impressed by this biker bar. Despite being plopped down in a fairly well-​to-​do area it reminded me of some of the dives practically I grew up in out in the sticks.
We got there about an hour before they started serving food, so we had a drink at the bar while we waited for them to open up the kitchen. They have a pretty decent selection of beers on tap and in bottles. It ranges from the stuff you’ll find just about everywhere to a couple of selections from Lakefront. I opted for the Lakefront Eastside because I prefer dark beers.
We both had the meatloaf special. The meatloaf was some of the best I’ve had in awhile. Often, meatloaf can break apart and get really greasy. That wasn’t the case here at all. The meatloaf was solid, and it was very well-​seasoned. The twice baked potato that came with it was creamy and just excellent. Their take on green beans – adding bacon to them – was interesting as well, even if it didn’t allow me to pretend I was showing my arteries any love by eating my greens. Our jalapeño popper appetizers were pretty decent as well (if just a touch overdone) and came out piping hot.
The biggest drawback is honestly that the bar is pretty open about their love-​affair with right-​wing politics, and in particular Joel Kleefisch. They’ve got one of his yard signs attached to the wall and have a couple of flyers from a local news event they participated in with him during an election. I’m sure it works in Waukesha County, but if I’m honest I’m a little discomforted whenever I see a business (whether on the left or the right) flaunting their political preferences. They obviously have the right to display whatever signs they want in and around their business in support of whatever and whoever they want, but I generally think it’s really tacky.
I picked this place sorta randomly as a meetup location, but if their other food is as good as their specials I could see Stolley’s serving as a normal rendezvous point for meeting up with family from out of town in the future.

My absolute favorite bar love to stop in on the Harley. The bartenders are fantastic and the food is great for the price. I consider it my home bar as I go often.

Me: Oh hey, Toto… I, um, don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.
Toto: No shit, Sherlock. We’re in lake country. Everyone’s got a Harley except you. Where’s your bandana and leather vest?
Um.
As Mike C so eloquently stated, highfalutin’ this place is not. A roadhouse, it is. A bar full o’ regulars, it is. An internet jukebox, it has. (I wonder what would happen if I played some WuTang here?)
An old school bartender who can’t hear all that well anymore — probably due to years of tending bar — is working the pine and fixes me a super cheap but super quality bloody. We proceed to snag food, and order cheese curds and an elk burger. They are both solid (elk = delicious!) and surprise! … also cheap.
Definitely out of our element here, but sometimes culture shock is a good thing. Helps one retain perspective, ya know?
Should we find ourselves out here again, I’d def stop back… the food and bloody were solid and the prices were right!

Food is delicious, food is consistent, always friendly and you always feel welcomed. Love their fish fry Friday’s but you better get there early, seating limited but they will serve you at the bar

Went there Sunday for brunch. Wait-​staff was non-​existent. The only way you will get served here is if you are a local. A table that was seated after us received their meal, ate and left before we even got our food. When the waitress did show up, she forgot one of our guests coffee. (He ended up going up to the waitress station and helped himself, as he was sick of waiting. After the meal, I asked for a box. Ten minutes went by, still no box. We also came here in May, and same situation, no service. Bikers, don’t go here, you are not welcome. They should name this place «Yuppie’s Only!»

Damn Stolley’s is good.
Contrary to the reviews that mention waiting a long time for service and/​or food, the service I had was very prompt and the food (wonton mozzarella sticks for an appetizer and bluegill for the entrée) came out of the kitchen in no time. I do need to point out I sat at a high top table just off the bar because I was told by the hostess I’d be served quicker, so I don’t know how long I would have had to wait for a table or food in the dinning room if there was a wait at all.
The wonton mozzarella sticks were hot and crispy. I received a good portion (seven large pieces) of bluegill that had great flavor. Some of the best bluegill I’ve had, in fact. If I had to nitpick anything I thought the two medium-​large sized potato pancakes could have been a bit more firm, but they were tasty. All of the food was well priced for the amount you get.
I will absolutely be dining at Stolley’s again.

OMG. Born in the Midwest but moved away 10 years ago. The Friday night fish fry is AMAZING! We had a combo of Walleye, Perch and Bluegill with fries. It was like an orgasm in our mouths. No other way to say it. Even the tartar sauce was the BEST! YUM YUM YUM! It’s super busy but the wait is so worth it!

Service was horrible. We were there at 2pm on a weekend and waited 1.5 hrs for our food. We had to leave before our food was even out. The server did not bring us the drinks that we ordered. We actually had to cancel most of our order since the food did not come out together. Would not recommend.

Good pub food, cheap drinks. Don’t get the steak sandwich. Don’t come if you’re in a hurry… or if you’re not wearing camo/​leather. But what do you expect?

Great place, unfortunately horrible service. Bartender with tribal tattoos, has a job there for some reason. Worst service you could possibly get, he was not paying attention to customers, would take 5 – 10 minuets to get a drink, had a girlfriend there he was more interested in paying attention to. This bartender was being rude to all customers, making rude comments and making the environment totally uncomfortable. There was a regular there that was trying to start a fight with everyone in the bar, the bartender was antagonising the whole situation without trying to stop it at all. I have been here before with amazing service, dont understand how this man has a job, he is driving away business. Every single customer left at 1am, because of the terrible service and uncomfortable environment. I would not recommend this facility at all, unless you are looking for terrible customer service, a bad night, and possibly a fight.

Great bar food! They have high chairs and a separate dining area from bar. Be patient tho, the food takes a little while!

Found this place for breakfast on Unilocal.It was great food for those not fretting about eating super healthy. The skillet with polish sausage was tasty. My date tried the egg Benedict special which had schnitzel instead of ham.

I stop by every time I’m in town. Great environment. Amazing food. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Very friendly staff. Very fun and comfortable to be inside or out on the patio. Killer fish fry’s on Fridays. A must stop if in the neighborhood. Or worth the drive. Right off the 94. Harley not needed to enjoy.

Great dive bar. The food is pretty tasty –my husband always gets the Thai chili wings and I rotate between a burger and a rueben. If you are ordering an appetizer, make sure you clarify that you want the appetizer brought out before your meal, otherwise they tend to bring everything out at once. Service can be slow at times, but we usually aren’t in a rush when we go here, so it’s never been a problem, it’s just an observation. The only real negative thing I have to say is that they charge for refills on soft drinks (and don’t tell you up front!!)… So if you are the DD, or just aren’t drinking that night, your bill can add up just as quickly as those who are drinking.

The Hog Burger is delicious, but my friend and I went there and we got pretty rude service. We ended up leaving without ordering.

My family and friends went here for breakfast on a Saturday morning. There was only one other table of about 8 people there ordering as well… But the service was super slow. It took about 45 minutes to get the food delivered. The server was very kind but she was the only server working. The food was average.

Sundays are often take-a-drive-to-a-place-or-part-of-town-that-we-don’t-normally-visit kind of days. Today’s (January 19, 2014) drive took us to the southern shores of Upper Nemahbin Lake in Oconomowoc. We rather randomly picked this as our destination and Stolley’s Hogg Alley as our designated diner.
Stolley’s is one of those places you see from I-​94. It’s on the north side of the freeway, between the Upper and Lower Nemahbin Lakes. From the outside, it’s an unassuming looking place.
In fact, it is on the inside, too. This is not a highfalutin place. It is actually a very low, lowfalutin joint. A roadhouse. A biker hangout type of roadhouse. Even though we visited in the dead of winter, I swear I could still hear the rumble of Harley-​Davidsons echoing off the walls. Either that or it was the cacophony of Chris Cornell’s voice and Soundgarden’s roar blasting out of the kitchen at excruciatingly sonic levels.
If one needed any further evidence of the kind of gin joint they’ve walked into, they need look any further than the signs telling patrons where the men’s and women’s restrooms are: correspondingly labeled «Point & Pi$$» and «Sit & Squirt.»
But aside from that, Stolley’s serves up some pretty tasty pub food at a very good value. Both my wife and I opted for their namesake burger: The Hogg. It’s a loaded half-​pounder of certified Black Angus beef fixed with American and Swiss cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo & onion. Comes too with your choice potato. I can’t remember all the types, but I know there were homemade fries, waffle fries and tator tots. I went with the homemades; they were great.
Price for that whopper of a lunch? $ 7.50. A great deal to be certain. I pay a dollar more than that for a simple cheeseburger at my favorite Walker’s Point gyro joint.
I can’t say for certain when I’ll visit Stolley’s again. Maybe next Summer when it’s motorcycle season. I’ll take a nice ride around the lakes and plan on a burger at Stolley’s to complete my ride.
I just hope they don’t mind a BMW in the parking lot. ;)
P. S. I’ve got a suspicion that they have a good fish fry here. It looks like the kind of place that would. I’ll try to check that out someday too.

On the road. Thought it was on the lake… ordered cod sandwich. Hubby ardered the Hogg burger. Waited so long we had to wolf down our food. My cod was good… But they left off the pickle I asked for. No lettuce or tomato?.. Very disappointing… Go a block down to Sports Channel. You can sit right out on the lake. I don’t know about the service or food, but the service couldn’t possibly be worse!
One good thing… The sweet potato fries were dynamite yummy.